Final assembly of an aircraft entails aligning and moving components into a final set assembled configuration. Some of those components may be large-scale components such as fuselage sections. Some other components may also be large-scale components such as wings or a vertical fin that, in addition, may be aerodynamically significant. These components typically are placed on assembly jacks, located and aligned, and moved on the assembly jacks to be joined to each other.
It is desirable to predict trimmed cruise configuration of an as-built airplane. Typically, a separate post-assembly measurement survey of an assembled aircraft is performed to determine exact final locations of components in the as-built airplane in order to predict cruise configuration. However, performance of processes and procedures to perform a separate measurement survey of the aircraft after assembly can introduce additional flow time and can introduce additional costs to the final assembly process.
The foregoing examples of related art and limitations associated therewith are intended to be illustrative and not exclusive. Other limitations of the related art will become apparent to those of skill in the art upon a reading of the specification and a study of the drawings.